Terms
Khyber Pass
The Khyber Pass is the most important pass connecting Pakistan with Afghanistan. Throughout history it has been an important trade route between Central Asia and South Asia and a strategic military location. The history of the Khyber Pass as a strategic gateway dates from 326 B.C., when Alexander the Great and his army marched through the Khyber to reach the plains of India. From their, he sailed down Indus River and led his army across the desert of Gedrosia.
Hydaspes (Jhelum) River
One of the northern branches that merges with others to become the Indus River
Porus
He was the ruler of a Kingdom in Punjab that was located between what is now known as the Jhelum and the Chenab rivers (in Greek sources called Hydaspes and Acesines) in the Punjab. Porus chose to fight Alexander the Great in order to defend his kingdom and people. Porus fought the battle of the Hydaspes River with Alexander in 326 BC. After he was defeated by Alexander, in a famous meeting with Porus who had suffered many arrow wounds in the battle and having lost his sons who all chose death in battle rather than surrender. Alexander reportedly asked him, "how he should treat him". Porus replied, "the way one king treats another". Alexander the Great was so impressed by the brave response of King Porus that he restored his captured Kingdom back to him and gave addition lands of a neighboring area who's ruler had fled.
Monsoon
Wind pattern associated with heavy rains. Alexander’s forces struggled with these in India and these were part of the reasons (in addition to the elephants) that they resisted fighting there.
Stupa
Large relic structures (the one we saw in lecture was like a big stone dome) that contain some body part or object related to the Buddha (Siddharta).
Relic
A relic is an object, especially a piece of the body or a personal item of someone of religious significance, carefully preserved with an air of veneration as a tangible memorial.
Gandhara
Around 327 BC Alexander the Great invaded Gandhara and Indian Satrapies of Persian Empire. His stay in this area was merely less than a year. This did not have any immediate administrative or cultural effect. The expeditions of Alexander were recorded by Arrian (around 175 AD) in Anabasis and other chroniclers many centuries after the event.
Anthropomorphic
Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human characteristics and qualities to non-human beings, objects, natural, or supernatural phenomena. Greek Gods were often portrayed as humans in sculpture and painting.
Mutiny
Alexander faced two mutinies: the first in 326 at the Hyphasis (Beas) river and the second in 324 at Opis.
Funeral pyre
A pyre is a structure, such as a mound of wood, for burning a body as part of a funeral rite. A form of cremation, a body or bodies is placed upon the pyre and the pyre is set on fire. These were used in the time of Alexander.
Successors/Diadoch
Specifically, in hellenistic history, the Diadochi were the rival successors to Alexander the Great and their Wars of the Diadochi followed Alexander's death. This was the beginning of the Hellenistic period of Greek history, the time when many people who were not Greek themselves adopted Greek philosophy and styles, Greek city life and aspects of Greek religion.
Vergina
In 1977 Andronikos undertook a six-week dig at the Tumulus and found four buried chambers which he identified as hitherto undisturbed tombs. Three more were found in 1980. Excavations continued through the 1980s and 1990s. Andronikos maintained that one of the tombs was of Philip II, and another was of Alexander IV of Macedon, son of Alexander the Great. This has now become the firm view of Greek archaeologists and the Greek government, but some other archaeologists dispute this identification.
Tumulus
A mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves
Alexander I (a.k.a. “The Philhellene”)
Ruled Macedonia for an astonishing 45 years and was considered a friend to Southern Greeks. Inititially, capitulated to the Persian Invasion of Greece and only later switched sides to join the “Free Greek” side. 495-450BC
Euripedes
Major Athenian playwright. Moved to Macedonia after being underappreciated in Athens and wrote tragedies for the king. He wrote The Bacchae while in Macedon and it won him great awards after his death.
Philip II
Was the father of Alexander and ruled Macedonia for 25 years. He was assassinated in Verdina. Philip had won a great honor for the people of Macedon by winning the Olympic Games and began an expansionist policy that included organizing those in Macedonia and building an efficient military. He expanded Macedonian territories including taking the city of Olynthus. Philip’s effective military organization and expansion made Alexander’s much more dramatic expansions possible.
Stater
A Greek coin that circulated from about 500BC – 50AD and represented four-drachma (tetradrachma). Philip created his own version that often included his face or the face of Zeus.
Tetradrachm
Worth four drachmas. The coins in Macedonia often contained pictures of Philip or Zeus and were one of the many ways Philip reinforced his power including his placement of name on military weapons.
Herakles
Great Greek Hero (Called Hercules in West) who Alexander traced his bloodline back to. Herakles was known for strength and courage and one of his main symbols, the lion’s mane, was adopted by Alexander.
Olympias
Alexander’s Mother. Married Philip after Philip had begun his expansion and was from the house said to be descended from Achilles. Often referred to as scheming and power-hungry and depicted as such in the 1955 Alexander movie.
Siege of Olynthus
One of Philip’s great military accomplishments. He attacked the city for a year and finally conquered it. Upon taking the city, he burnt it to the ground. His victory there established Macedon as a great Greek power. Philip’s advanced siege technology was one of his key military advantages.
Battle of Chaeroneia
The Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC), fought near Chaeronea, in Boeotia, was the greatest victory of Philip II of Macedon. There, Philip (with 32,000 men) defeated the smaller combined forces of Athens and Thebes, securing Macedonian hegemony in Greece. In the Macedonian line, Philip commanded the right wing, while Alexander commanded the left wing — albeit supervised by the best Commanders of the King. The famed Companion Cavalry was situated to the rear of the Macedonian line. Macedon's supremacy over the Greek city-states was finally established, that was later sanctioned that year by the birth of the League of Corinth, dominated by Philip. The battle is also of great importance in the fact that it signed the decline of the city-state institution, and the rise of the territorial states; to this it can be added that it prepared the ground to the Macedonian conquest of the Persian Empire a few centuries later.
Phalanx
Advanced version of Greek Hoplites. Carried long spears called Sarissa and large shields. Were a difficult formation for enemy horsemen to penetrate because of the length of their spears and the fact that they stayed tightly together. Depicted in the Alexander Mural found in Pompeii.
Sarissa
A long, thin lance used by the Macedonian phalanx to great effect against horsemen especially the Persians. Was a major advantage introduced by Philip.
Oblique line attack
A military tactic where an attacking army focuses its forces to attack a single enemy flank.The force commander concentrates the majority of his strength on one flank and uses the remainder to fix the enemy line. That allows a commander with weaker or equal forces to achieve a local superiority in numbers. Famously used by Philip II and Alexander the Great.
Demosthenes
Demosthenes grew interested in politics during his time as a logographer, and in 354 BC he gave his first public political speeches. He would go on to devote the most productive years of his life to opposing Macedon's expansion. He idealized his city and strove throughout his life to restore Athens' supremacy and motivate his compatriots against Philip II of Macedon. He sought to preserve his city's freedom and to establish an alliance against Macedon, in an unsuccessful attempt to impede Philip's plans to expand his influence southwards by conquering all the Greek states. After Philip's death, Demosthenes played a leading part in his city's uprising against the new King of Macedon, Alexander the Great.
Bucephalus
Alexander’s Horse. Bucephalus died after the Battle of the Hydaspes in 326 BC. The story of the taming of Bucephalus (no one else could tame him and Alexander approaches him from side and soothingly turns him away from being scared by his own shadow and impresses everyone, Philip says: “O my son, look thee out a kingdom equal to and worthy of thyself, for Macedonia is too little for thee.” The two were to be inseparable for 22 years, though he often used a different horse for the edge of battle. When Bucephalus died, he gave him a hero’s funeral and named a city after him.
Plutarch
One of the key sources of information on Alexander’s life. He was a Greek historian and biographer. Many of his descriptions of Alexander’s appearance and life events appear no where else. He described Alexander’s face in a way that allows analysis of sculpture today.
Mieza
The site of Alexander’s prep-school or boot camp. Run under the direction of Aristotle. Philip had established the site as a place for the next generation of Macedonian leaders to learn and become athletic.
Hephaistion
Hephaestion (ca. 356 BC–324 BC), son of Amyntor, a Macedonian aristocrat. He was a boon companion, general, and possibly even a lover of Alexander the Great. It is likely that the two met at Mieza. Robin Lane Fox has referred to Hephaestion as Alexander's alter ego. He excelled in logistics and was a captain of the Companion Cavalry along with Cleitus.
Companions
The Companions were Alexander the Great's elite cavalry, the offensive arm of his army and also his elite guard. They would be used in conjunction with his Macedonian phalanx. The Phalanx would "fix" the enemy into place and then the Companion cavalry would attack the enemy on the flank. After his death, they divided up his kingdom, each taking certain parts. They were some of his most important long-term military advisors.
Pothos
Greek for “yearning,” often used to describe Alexander’s eyes: yearning for the east.
Arete
The Greek ideal of Excellence that Alexander and others strived for. It was said to be epitomized in Greek heroes like Herakles and Achilles. Specifically, to the ancient Greeks, it referred to the perfection of the male form and the male body of a youth up to the age of about 20. As such it was an essential value of classical Greek thought.
Mycenae
Ancient Greek city that flourished in the Bronze Age (1600-1200 BC), was the capital of King Agamemnon and was most prosperous from 1400-1200 BC. (Image: golden mask of Agamemnon, 1600 BC, found in graves and serves as testament to masonry/skill of artisans). At Mycenae there exists a citadel with the well-known Lion’s Gate, which was the symbol of the ruling class/kings of Mycenae. Part of the great walls of fortification built around city.
Mt. Olympus
Were the gods were thought to have lived.
Basileus
A word that signifies “sovereign”—appropriated by Bronze Age Mycenaean’s to mean “chieftain” or someone who is high up in ruling class.
Tholos Tomb
Beehive tombs, also known as Tholos tombs, are a monumental Late Bronze Age development of either the Mycenaean chamber tombs or tumulus burials dating to the Middle Bronze Age. The tombs usually contain more than one burial, in various places in the tomb either on the floor, in pits and cists or on stone-built or rock-cut benches, and with various grave goods. After a burial, the entrance to the tomb was filled in with soil, leaving a small mound with most of the tomb underground.
Corbel vault
A corbel arch is an arch-like construction method which uses the architectural technique of corbeling to span a space or void in a structure, such as an entranceway in a wall or as the span of a bridge. A corbel vault uses this technique to support the superstructure of a building's roof.
King archon
Archon Basileus was a Greek title, meaning 'king magistrate': from the words archon "magistrate" and basileus "king" or "sovereign". In classical Athens, the Archon Basileus was the last remnant of monarchy.
Tyrant, tyrrany
A tyrant possesses absolute power through the people in a state or in an organization: one refers to this mode of rule as a tyranny. In ancient Greece, tyrants were generally aristocrats who had gained power over the others by getting the support of the poor people by giving them land, freeing them from slavery, etc. Usually gained power on behalf of the lower, disenfranchised people against the aristocrats.
Oligarchy
Oligarchy is a form of government where most or all political power effectively rests with a small segment of society (typically the most powerful, whether by wealth, family, military strength, or political influence). The word oligarchy is from the Greek words for "few” and "rule."
Aristocracy
The Ancient Greek term aristocracy meant a system of government with "rule by the best". This is the first definition given in most dictionaries. The word is derived from two words, "aristos" meaning the "best" and "kratein" "to rule".